December 15, 2005

Gorilla Warfare

After
slapping a lawsuit against Microsoft for patent infringement Wednesday, wireless
email provider Visto CEO Brian
Bogosian, doing his best King Kong impersonation, thumped his chest and
bellowed, "They're going to have to satisfy our requirements for playing in this
market. Really, more important than money at this point, is receiving an
injunction." Look at that little monkey go after the 800-pound gorilla!

Borgasian said Visto filed the lawsuit without approaching Microsoft about a
settlement first. "For their foray into mobile email and data access,
Microsoft simply decided to misappropriate Visto's well known and documented
patented technology. We ... had very little expectation that Microsoft, given
their past track record, would take any of our claims very seriously. So now we
think they're going to take them pretty seriously."

"Innovative companies have been pummeled out of existence or into minor
players after Microsoft decided to enter their markets," Bogosian added.
"Netscape and RealNetworks are among the best known examples. Courts around the
world have ruled time after time against Microsoft, saying that it has acted
either inappropriately or in violation of the law, especially concerning how
they have treated competing companies. We will not let that happen to Visto."

Borrowing Dubya's patented smirk, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans would only
pip a non sequitur, "We do want to underscore that Microsoft stands behind its
products, and respects the intellectual property rights of others."

Visto has a portfolio of 25 patents. The three asserted against Microsoft
were:
6,085,192;
6,708,221; &
6,151,606, all dealing with network synchronization.